“It’s with a heavy heart that I tell you that Alabama CU has won the credit card application contest,” Deidre J. Davis, senior vice president for marketing and member experience at NDFCU, reported on Tuesday. “We received 331 (credit card) applications. They received 355.”

Each credit union contributed $5,000, which means Alabama CU will donate the $10,000 to Secret Meals For Hungry Children, the credit union’s charitable program that discreetly provides impoverished schoolchildren with packets of food.

And while there are a lot people in high spirits in Alabama and some folks in the doldrums in Indiana today, the two credit unions ended up benefitting from the collaborative marketing project, and so did a charity.

“The average number of credit card applications we receive in any given month is 185,” Davis said. “For this promotion, which ran less than a month, we received 331 applications. That’s more than 78% higher than normal.”

ACU has about 65 average monthly credit card applications and pulled in 355 applications, more than a 500% percent increase in credit card applications in less than 30 days.

The contest launched Dec. 12 with both credit union promoting it on their Facebook and Twitter pages. ACU displayed posters in its branches and NDFCU sent out a mailer to its members.

What also made the credit card contest appealing to members, said Davis, was that the monetary prize supported a charity.

“That opened up a lot of people to be more receptive to the (credit card contest) concept, in general,” said Davis.

She also said this type of product promotion could provide marketing opportunities for credit unions in other states that have natural rivalries – Ohio State-Michigan as an example – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be strictly a sports rivalry.

“I think there could be a lot of potential for credit unions to team up, and it goes to the center of what credit unions are all about – how can we collaborate so all of us can do better,” Davis said.

Both credit unions, however, learned that the credit card contest could open the way for future marketing collaboration possibilities.